'Boo, hiss! Poor form pushing gambling on Twitter, anywhere. A family club? Apparently not' , was my recent reply to a tweet from the Richmond Football Club.

Another follower replied to my reply. 'You seem to have a lot of anger towards the club lately'. And in this brief exchange, there’s an essay about all the ambiguities of supporter loyalty.

Two days before this season’s first game, our CEO, Brendon Gale, said in a press release:

“We are excited about the partnership with Sportbet.com.au [sic], which is another important announcement as we continue to build, on and off the field.”

Never mind that in an orchestrated media announcement – on the eve of the opening game, when all were looking elsewhere – the club would misspell the name of a business it had entered into a two-year deal with. Our football club chose money over responsible citizenry. It sold its membership to a betting agency. It has become complicit in gambling. It has traded in all its history and honour – its great community goodwill – for the quick fix of a bet.

Buggered if I’m going to be silent on this.

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The Tigers were terrific on Friday night; they were dreadful. Matty Dea stood under a high ball and took a courageous mark, and spontaneous handclapping rung out around our end of the ground; he spilled a mark near the top of the square and the Swans goaled. Alex Rance was at his imperious best on Friday night, blanketing his opponent and running off him when the game was there to be won; Buddy Franklin kicked four goals and was the match-winner. There are so many ways to look at a football club; there are so many ways to look at a game of football.

Seventeen minutes into the second quarter, when Brett Deledio kicked a running goal, grown men in the stands hugged each other. A belief that’s been missing all season was back. At this darkest hour, on the eve of winter’s equinox, our team at last was here to warm our hearts. There was beauty in the spectacle.

“Smash ’em, Richmond!”

Richmond would kick only one more goal for the game, and this night’s and season’s despair was complete. The glow-in-the-dark boots worn by Jack and Cotch were of no succour. Still we could not see the light. It didn’t matter that Shaun Hampson kicked his first goal in yellow and black and was mobbed by his team mates; voices in outer still derided his efforts. All that was gained was again lost. The final statistic condemned us: another loss.

About a month ago, in a blog post titled A lament for Richmond (& how the club broke my heart), I offered considered criticism of the club I hold dear. It may have been misconstrued as anger. It wasn’t. Mostly, it was disappointment; generally about how I thought I’d been treated by Simon Matthews, the club’s general manager of media and stakeholder relations, and specifically about seeing my name on a whiteboard within the club, alongside the word “flog”.

I thank all TTBB readers who posted comments about that story, and who contacted me directly, and “Daffy” who posted about it on the Punt Road End fan forum under the title Shameful treatment of a devoted fan. I also thank the mediator of Punt Road End, Rosy23, for following-up on the issue and managing the debate. Again, in this thread there’s a lively discussion about ideas of loyalty.

In this piece, I wrote about the death of Tommy Hafey, and trust and belief, and about Benny Gale’s tilt for the AFL top job. I wasn’t disappointed in him pitching for the job – most of us have personal ambition, a virtuous trait in football as in life – but was disappointed for all those Richmond fans who hold unconditional trust in his leadership.

In “the Chief” there is an aura of strength and stability, of strong guidance, of a steady hand. In the Chief there is belief and hope. He’s a big man. All of us look up to him.

What had his interview for the top AFL job said about his duty to Richmond, I asked.

“For us outsiders, it can be read only as duplicity. He is Richmond, until a better offer presents. Rightly or wrongly, it is a signal that percolates down. And in a time of crisis, his wavering of trust resonates beyond its circumstances. If his heart is tempted by another offer, why should ours remain true?”

Last week, Brendon Gale was in the news again. At issue was a trip to the Soccer World Cup in Brazil, arranged for by Chrysler whose subsidiary, Jeep, are a major club sponsor. In an article by Greg Denham in The Australian newspaper, Simon Matthews said he had no problem with Gale’s trip or its timing.

“He left on Wednesday and he’s away for a week,” he said. “Brendon’s gone with our major partner, they are a big part of our business, and he’s gone with our blessing.”

Last week I tapped the words “maritime law” and “abandon ship” into Google. So much about football is about perception. The most damning accusation to be levelled at a player is that he is not trying. Or more truthfully, that he looks not to be trying. How a player appears on the field – the way he mans a mark, attacks a contest, runs off the ball – is everything, just as how a club and its leaders might look off the field.

Last week I set an alarm and got up in the mid of night and in a cold living room in Melbourne watched the Socceroos play the Netherlands in Porto Alegre in Brazil, and marvelled at Tim Cahill’s left boot, and thought of Brendon Gale and wondered if he were there.

I think his going to Brazil was ill-advised. Those within the club will, of course, say it was about business networking, which in part is true. But as with all these things, how much was work, and how much was personal pleasure? With Australia 3-2 down late in the second half, my head swirled with the fever of the occasion and the hour of the night, and SBS commentator Craig Foster asked: “How much do you love football?”

The point is this: all of us, if offered, would have jumped at the opportunity of an all-expenses trip to Brazil to watch two games of the World Cup. It’s a no-brainer. But all of us aren’t the head of an organisation with a $44.8 million turnover last year that now faces a crisis. The Richmond Football Club is in trouble, no matter all the calming words. Its on-field woes have the very real possibility of tilting off-field stability.

There is no harm in acknowledging this.

Last season, for instance, of all AFL clubs, only Collingwood pulled more barrackers through the turnstiles than Richmond, and it didn’t sell one if its home games to the tropics. Already this season, the crowd’s voted with its feet. Two weeks ago, for instance, the home crowd at the MCG against Fremantle was about half of what it was for the corresponding fixture on an unseasonably cold day last year. The more we lose, the worse it’ll get.

Both on and off the field, this season’s poor form has dire ramifications for next year, and maybe years beyond. It is not unreasonable to say there will be job losses, and belt tightening, and new ways will need to be found for doing things.

If a crisis is a time of immense difficulty or danger, then this feels a crisis for our club and us fans. And now in this time of crisis we hear that our CEO went to Rio, and it looks a folly. If the trip was about brand partnership with Jeep, then surely Brendon Gale’s most prudent course of action would be to stay home, remaining behind the wheel.

If Jeep wants commercial leverage from the Richmond Football Club, the club need uphold its end of the bargain. It needs to draw crowds. It needs to ensure prime-time exposure. It needs traffic to its website. It needs to pull an audience to be sold to its sponsors. In short, it needs to win games of football.

When Brendon Gale presented to the AFL board for its top job, it was a matter of self-interest. When Brendon Gale boarded the pointy-end of a plane for Brazil it was, in part, a matter of self-interest. As Caroline Wilson, an ardent Richmond person is wont to say, it “wasn’t a good look”.

If this is a misguided interpretation, consider an alternative scenario. Brendon Gale is approached by the AFL to pitch for its top job and he respectfully declines, citing his ongoing role at Richmond. And Brendon Gale accepts a sponsored trip to Brazil but later pulls out, citing urgent matters at hand, namely that he cannot vacate his office due to pressing and unforeseen problems on the home front.

Footy, it’s a game of perceptions.

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I stood in the outer on Friday night with Michael Green and others. No, not that Michael Green. This Michael Green is a freelance investigative journalist, and a Richmond man, who looks a likely half-back flanker. Our crowd was in full voice, and good humour, and wasn’t afraid to speak its mind.

“Ya sold your soul, Buddy! Ya sold your soul!”

At game’s end, I left my night’s companions – a Tiger and a Swan – to jump the MCC fence and scuttle around to see the players leave the ground. Richmond were in no mood for lingering. There is little to celebrate when you’re at the bottom of the ladder and expected so much more. Even our home games must for now seem so foreign to the players.

Swans players, conversely, were in no hurry to leave the rapturous adulation of their crowd. The aesthetics of the game mean nothing when you win. Their crowd and its colours looked so joyous, so cheerful, so happy with the night. It is as it should be: their team had just won its ninth consecutive game.

Imagine that? Nine games in a row. It’s been 34 years since Richmond last won nine games in a row. That’s a generation of support. And how it feels as if it could be another 34 years until we do it again.

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Early last year I wrote and sent a letter to Brendon Gale.

It began:

“My name is Dugald Jellie and I am an ardent Richmond supporter. I am also a writer. I was a journalist at The Age newspaper, before moving to Sydney in 1997 for a job as a features writer for the Sydney Morning Herald. I have played football, mostly for country teams, and once ran into Greg Dear’s elbow at a game in Lakes Entrance while playing centre-half-forward for the Snowy Rovers. For this I received a free-kick.”

I don’t think he read it.

After last year’s heartbreaking loss to Carlton in the Elimination Final, I had a long telephone conversation with Brendon Gale. I found him inquisitive and fair-minded man; knowledgeable, open and considered.

What I know about Brendon Gale is all on the public record. He’s a family man, a graduate from Marist College in Burnie, was a champion Richmond footballer (244 games, 209 goals), studied law at Monash, was on the Board of the Victorian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, and before taking the top job at Richmond was CEO of the AFL Players’ Association.

His faith is Catholic and his political leaning – gleaned from Martin Flanagan’s book Richo – is to the left. Every way I look at Brendon Gale, I like the man. He is that heady mix – the thinking-man footballer – that so excites respect and admiration among the crowd.

Our phone conversation was about my perceived grievances. What was unsaid is that both of us knew he was always going to back one of his senior managers – any of his employees – over a complaint from a fan who writes a blog. But he listened, he heard me out. A simple conversation, he placated resentments.

Textbook dispute resolution.

At conversation’s end, Gale confided in trade talks with a Richmond player. He said it was off-the-record. He trusted me, and knew that he could.

When once asked for advice for students at his former secondary college, Gale offered two tips. “Don’t limit your potential and be a doer not a knocker.”

Does my written criticism of the club, and of his recent absence in Brazil, fall into the category of ‘doer’ or ‘knocker’? Are my concerns – my voiced disapproval – of our club pushing the product of a betting agency, those of a ‘doer’ or a ‘knocker’?

Brendon Gale is 10 centimetres taller than I but I know I can look him in the eye. I am passionate about Richmond, I am loyal to Richmond, I want the best for Richmond, as so many of us do.

But this loyalty does not preclude me from dissent. Loyalty cannot silence the crowd from fair-minded criticism. And if the club is blind or deaf to those who disagree with some of its ideas, then surely it will never truly grow and prosper as an organisation. Three wins and 10 losses is the bottom line, as it stands, for this season. The house of cards has fallen. Our disappointments cannot be denied. The time is nigh for Richmond to consider new ways of doing business; to consider new ways of being a football club.

Comments

Dugald,
I think the game must have looked better on telly than it did at the ground, either that or I was so dosed up on Codral that I was looking through rosier glasses. Somehow, despite the loss, I felt better about the team for having nearly taken out a premiership favourite, and I thought we had lots of great individual performances, (particularly Alex Rance whom I thought was outstanding, so much so I was yelling “suffer Buddy!!” at the telly). It just didn’t turn into a win and we find ourselves languishing equal last. Egad!!
I am hopeful we will get a win against St Kilda this week and will be going to the game.
The next 9 weeks will be telling, that’s for sure.
As for Brendon, as long as the cost of the trip is not coming out of the Club’s pocket then I hope he learns something about football, and how it is ingrained in culture. I trust he is required to make a presentation to the Board upon his return, to report on what he learned and how he can use it to improve the club.
Cheers

Egad! Egad! Egad! I love it when TTBB readers make me look up the dictionary.
I am, we are, always learning.
Hope the sinuses are in better working order. A Rance was a/the highlight of last Friday night (a most entertaining duel between those two hombres).
I am hopeful of a win also on Saturday and was to be going to the game with a very generous Adelaide-based Tiger but, alas (egad!) have a wedding on instead.
(Not mine)
Enjoy the game Skippygirl and I hope your thinking woman’s crumpet – our Stonewall Jackson – is back.
Lovely, as always to receive your correspondence.

A few years ago now I wrote an email to Gary Pert, CEO at Collingwood objecting to the club sending a promotional email to members on behalf of a betting agency sponsor. Particularly offensive was that the prize was a day in the coaches box, that rarest of inner sanctums. The catch? To be eligible you had to open a $50 online betting account. I found this particularly odorous.

To be honest I can’t remember whether I got a response or not. All I know is that the unholy alliance continues and Colllngwood has one of the largest gaming revenue streams of all AFL clubs.

But then our 2nd greatest benefactor (after Mannix) was the notorious John Wren, who ran the biggest SP business back in the day. So maybe, it’s just another one of our traditions.

What I love about the Collingwood Football Club is its Latin motto (what does it mean, again?), its fans like you, and that it’s such a broad and benevolent church. And the history of the old Carringbush, as crooked as the nearby Yarra wending its way beside the breweries, beside Victoria Park, is a history of inner city working class sensibilities. I don’t mind a flutter – life is a gamble and it’s worth taking the risk – but I am always so saddened whenever I find myself taking a wrong turn to be in a pokies hall. All those flashing lights, all that miserable body posture. It cannot be fun. It’s surely an addiction. And it goes against all by grains of social justice, being a tax predominately on the poor that trickles up to the rich.

I hear Eddie has recently bought himself another property in Toorak, as an investment.

He is like a feudal king of Melbourne.

Never am too sure what to make of Eddie. The Broady boy made very, very good!

Always good to hear from the Dragon. Like that high jumping little forward of yours, and that young Grammar boy who was pick No. 742 and seems to be holding down a key defensive position with aplomb.

Couldn’t agree more about perceptions Dugald.
I was genuinely shocked & dismayed when on the verge of the season veteran player and former skipper Chris Newman, did a cross promotional piece for our much maligned betting sponsor.
Here was Newie emotively harping on about how much the club and it’s players valued the Y&B guernsey, only to discover it was a hook for a ‘free’ jumper giveaway upon opening a new account with our gambling sponsor!
I truly wondered right there if the club had sold it’s soul. 🙁
Coincidence or not that we’ve had the season from hell but one has to say karma’s a bitch on the back of that commercial decision.
I hope those clever employees at our football club making these decisions think a bit more carefully about their actions. Don’t treat supporters with contempt and always treat the club’s history with respect.
Truly value these things because without them you won’t have a job and hellava lot worse we won’t have a club. Remember that not everything has to have a dollar sign.. #gotiges

Thanks Tigers of Old, and reckon you have a silent majority who back your viewpoint.

Certainly, I’ve seen others on Twitter to have complained directly to the club on its push marketing for said betting agency. Remember one woman querying whether children were receiving these Tweets. I reckon many within the club itself would feel uncomfortable with the alliance, also. It’s an interesting ethical issue. I understand and appreciate a professional FC like Richmond operates on an annual budget of about $40m, and that money needs to come from somewhere.
I cannot say I like gambling advertising, but I accept that it is legal.
So where to draw the line.
I guess what also troubles me is that Richmond supporters have no say in this. We have no say in what direction the club takes. We give all our trust to them, and sometimes they disappoint, on and off the field.
My heart says I wish the club didn’t have to accept gambling dollars.

I agree with most of what you say and its particularly disheartening to hear of your treatment by those at the club. I will say though that I think you’re being unfair on Brendon Gale for going for the AFL job, such jobs don’t arise very often and he does have a career to think about. It would be naive to think that he’s only in the Richmond job for the love of the club. On the world cup trip I don’t think its a good look but if he comes back with knowledge to help the club then its worth it.

I’m not sure I’m being unfair on Brendon. As I’ve mentioned several times, I have no qualms about him going for the top AFL job, I have no qualms about his personal ambition.

All my qualms – and they are not about him – are about what his pitch means to those Richmond supporters who are unquestioning in their faith to him.

Not sure I can articulate this difference. Guess what I’m trying to say (and I’m a devil’s advocate here) is that the honeymoon is over for Benny, and the sheen has been tarnished. In the eyes of many devoted Richmond supporters, their regard for him may have slipped a notch or two.

I hope this is a fair observation.

There are no absolutes. Much of it is about perception.

Anyway, I encourage all discourse and all dissent from prevailing views! And I am always happy to be persuaded otherwise.

Hi Dugald,
Firstly, I want to say that I feel there are actually two issues raised here that I feel really need to be discussed separately – yet they are intrinsically intertwined so that it is difficult to discuss one without raising the other.
Brendon Gale is one subject and Richmond’s close affiliation with a betting company is the other.
I might have to split this into two replies.
Benny is not far off celebrating (?) 5 years as our CEO (August 2009 he accepted the post).
I believe he is the “glue”, along with Gary March, that has made the Tigers a more stable club.
There has been a discussion on YellowandBlack about his trip (“junket” as some referred to it) but I am one who does not object to him going over there at this time of the year. I see it as part of his job as CEO to represent Richmond at major functions. Like it or not, we need sponsorship.
Having written the above, I can see your point about – what was it – “citing urgent matters at hand, namely that he cannot vacate his office due to pressing and unforeseen problems on the home front.”
Yes, in hindsight, I would have preferred that he had replied in that manner.
But I don’t think that this is the first time that Gale has suffered a sharp retort from Tiger fans. I well recall standing in the crowd, or seated in the smouldering atmosphere of Bay13 and hearing the die-hards giving him a salvo of Bronx cheers for his efforts in the yellow sash. He survived all of that and became a very good player, taking many timely marks around CHB and CHF.
Remember Gale’s 3-point plan – 3-0-75? 3 finals, zero debt, 75,000 in 5 years.
Sorry, Benny, looks like it will be 1-manageable debt-65,000+. Guess you can blame the club’s poor performances this year for the last target failing (prob the 1st one as well).
I shall return on the subject of Richmond selling its/our soul(s).

James, always good to hear from you. Unlike Chris (see below), who grew up in the same part of Tasmania as Brendon, I did rate him as a player. He was big-bodied and robust, and manful, and one of those sort of footballers that all teams need. He was the sort of player who would make all around him walk just that little bit taller. Brendon was good at football, and football certainly has been good to him. And I agree he has been a galvanising influence at the club. He has engendered a sense of stability and faith; a steady hand.
I am sure this season has tested his leadership, although I think next year might test it even further. I find it remarkable how far and quickly the team have slipped – quite some misstep to be equal bottom in the second half of the season when all the pre-season talk was of “top four” being a pass mark. It’s sort of embarrassing how easily our team – or club – has been found wanting. And the messages coming from Punt Road to my ear sound very mixed. One week we’re talking still about hoping for September action (after the Melbourne loss, when it patently looked a forlorn hope). The next week there’s talk about a “war chest” to buy new players in the off-season. Our belief, our confidence, is shot.

And I think in professional football clubs, the standard is set at the top. It’s with the coach, or the manager, or the CEO. They are the ones who need to instil confidence and trust and belief, and from there it trickles down through the players to us fans.

So right now we need leadership. And next season we might need it just that little bit more. That’s when I trust our CEO will take some big and courageous pack marks. And if he doesn’t hold it, at least split the pack and bring the ball to ground.

James, I was one of the ones bronxing him (in front of the TV at least). I mostly remember him getting up there but then performing a sort of volleyball block-at-the-net. He wouldn’t mark and the ball just never seemed to fall to our crumbers. I took up a collection to buy him some opposable thumbs. I never rated him as a player, and (completely unfairly) I hold that against him as a CEO.

And his hair – dreadful, and he stuck with it, unlike Richo who tried a few disastrous do’s but got there in the end.

Thanks Chris – I couldn’t work out how to fix that typo.
I do think that Benny’s football improved in later years – but whether that was due to his growth as a player or that the team arguably became better, I’m not sure.
Further to what I referred to in my original post there is the question of a major betting company as one of the club’s sponsors.
I have to expose myself here in so far as I am not a betting person – except for the occasional Tattslotto ticket. I come from a family so heavily into betting that I can recall the family being broke on Dad’s pay night. As a little tacker (or because I was just a little tacker) being sent to beg some bread from the neighbours so that we had something to eat. Surviving this and having to listen to these incurable gamblers waft on about the huge wins they had pulled off when I was wearing trousers that were held together by good luck and my aunt’s skill with a needle and thread.
Have I said I am against gambling?
I believe that there are two things we must guard against in sport – any sport – and those are gambling and drugs. And I can see where those two no-nos could go hand in hand at times.
Not only do we have a betting sponsor but we proudly advertise this fact on our jumpers and, as Dugald wrote, in club emails to members. It doesn’t stop there, either, as the tv footy broadcasts feature ads for one or more betting companies. The cameras pan around the ground as play rolls to and fro and we glimpse (almost subliminally) the names of these companies. Commentators giving previews of the game to be viewed will mention betting odds or this will be flashed on the screen.
It is difficult not to see these figures.
A couple of days ago I was shopping down at the local supermarket. Kids were everywhere, well, it is school holidays. There was one group of four or five young teenagers (maybe not even yet teens) and they were in team clothing, predominantly of a brown and golden hue.
They were loudly discussing last week’s match and the one to come, so it was not that I was really eavesdropping. The talk was not so much about how many would Roughy kick or when would they get So-and-So back from injury . . . but, rather, what were the odds on them winning and such stuff as the payout on who would kick the first goal.
For a brief moment, I locked eyes with another old-timer who had also overheard this discussion. He slowly shook his head, turned and trudged away.
Hastily popping a packet of choccy-coated teddy-bear bikkies into my shopping trolley, I,too, shook my head to no-one in particular and made for the checkout.

another good piece Duges. I like your writing. Richmond promoting gambling to kiddies with a fun little pop up punting quiz is bordering evil. And Benny was on an ill-timed junket. Theres something a bit wrong at tigerland. We’re vulnerable.

Does that make me a knocker? Nah. Im just a Richmond fundamentalist.

my Bones McGhee T is my uniform. My mourning attire. It acts like a kind of low-tech, plutonic, tiger Tinder, connecting me with other Richmond fundamentalists. Who stay optimistic and wish for the olden days.

It might be late to join this conversation but the sponsorship of the game we love by those bookmaking parasites is right out of hand. There is plenty of money in football without the RFC taking more from whatever corporate shark offers it. I’ve overheard those conversations too, young people talking about footy…and it’s all about the odds and who will pay the most. What used to be an ice-breaker, a standard social currency is now all about gambling. It’s beyond sad, it’s sick in the worst sense of the word.

And as Dugald points out, the Club uses its army of supporters to get this money from the bookies but the supporters have no say in it, none at all.

And am I the only one who objects to being roared at during the half-time break by the Spruiker from Hell to jump up and down waving a corporate placard so that I might win a prize? This is what the Melbourne football supporter has been reduced to – a dancing beggar.